I built a veroboard search engine 😅

[kylewetton]

So I've done a few PedalPCBs, however they take 40+ days to get to my country, so I delved a bit into veroboard. One thing I didn't expect was that the two main sites to browse layouts were both blogspot sites spanning decades (and thank the lord for them).

However, I battled to actually browse these blogs. I'm sure you understand what I mean. Any way, I build a search engine that indexes and filters 2,600+ layouts. Have a look and let me know what you think.

Not the build report you're looking for but veroboard users out there might appreciate this.

Link: VeroboardMD

 

[Laundryroom David]

I’ve been looking for something like this - struggling with a DS-1 perfboard and I thought earlier today, man I wish I could search for vero projects without wanting to gnaw my arm off. THANK YOU!

 

[Silver Blues]

Wow, amazing work. Having spent a ton of time at both sites you're referring to and thinking the same thing, this is a godsend.

 

[DGWVI]

This is RAD! Thanks for your work

 

[Elijah-Baley]

First Research: DS-2.

Just kidding!

 

[kylewetton]

First Research: DS-2.

Just kidding!

Bro same

 

[owlexifry]

First Research: DS-2.

Just kidding!

if you really wanna have a go…

there’s a couple threads (from the tagboardeffects forum)

Unverified Layouts - Boss ds-2 for vero

Boss ds-2 for vero. this is a popular pedal and would be a nice addition. Is there Any way to do the buffered bypass on a daughter board. I like true bypass but lots of people dont like switch pop and...

guitar-fx-layouts.238.s1.nabble.com

Unverified Layouts - Boss DS-2 vero layout! Finally?

Boss DS-2 vero layout! Finally?. The Boss DS-2 is very different from the Boss DS-2. It's a famous pedal to get some of the sound of John Frusciante or Kurt Cobain. It's a cheap pedal but with a very...

guitar-fx-layouts.238.s1.nabble.com

 

[owlexifry]

Wow, amazing work. Having spent a ton of time at both sites you're referring to and thinking the same thing, this is a godsend.

+1
@kylewetton this is excellent work!

 

[kylewetton]

if you really wanna have a go…

there’s a couple threads (from the tagboardeffects forum)

Unverified Layouts - Boss ds-2 for vero

Boss ds-2 for vero. this is a popular pedal and would be a nice addition. Is there Any way to do the buffered bypass on a daughter board. I like true bypass but lots of people dont like switch pop and...

guitar-fx-layouts.238.s1.nabble.com

Unverified Layouts - Boss DS-2 vero layout! Finally?

Boss DS-2 vero layout! Finally?. The Boss DS-2 is very different from the Boss DS-2. It's a famous pedal to get some of the sound of John Frusciante or Kurt Cobain. It's a cheap pedal but with a very...

guitar-fx-layouts.238.s1.nabble.com

Holy shit 18 transistors!

 

[KR Sound]

Very cool!

 

[Elijah-Baley]

This DS-2 unverified layout is mine.

Unverified Layouts - Boss DS-2 vero layout! Finally?

Boss DS-2 vero layout! Finally?. The Boss DS-2 is very different from the Boss DS-2. It's a famous pedal to get some of the sound of John Frusciante or Kurt Cobain. It's a cheap pedal but with a very...

guitar-fx-layouts.238.s1.nabble.com

I omitted the Turbo Mode, because I didn't understand the schematic.

 

[dan.schumaker]

This DS-2 unverified layout is mine.

Unverified Layouts - Boss DS-2 vero layout! Finally?

Boss DS-2 vero layout! Finally?. The Boss DS-2 is very different from the Boss DS-2. It's a famous pedal to get some of the sound of John Frusciante or Kurt Cobain. It's a cheap pedal but with a very...

guitar-fx-layouts.238.s1.nabble.com

I omitted the Turbo Mode, because I didn't understand the schematic.

(Sorry for hijacking the initial thread)

Did this end up working for you? I think you might have been really close to having turbo mode with taking a few parts out. I found this on TheGearPage a while back, talking about the DS-2:

"Input to Q6, a JFET buffer, splits to Q5 for the bypass signal, to Q11 as output buffer. Q3, Q4, basically any JFET you see in a Boss or Ibanez pedal with a diode connected to gate are operating as switches. So if Q3 is active it allows signal to pass from Q5 to Q11 and out, whilst Q4 is off and does not allow signal from VR3, Volume.

Then we go to Q22, input to the distortion stage. Two hard-clipping diodes on its base (D14, D15) but since the signal is unity gain they don't clip except with very large input signals, they're likely only present to keep Q22 from going into cutoff. Q22 is a common-emitter gain stage, feeds Q23 which is a second gain stage, but also feeds Q14. Q14 and Q15 are switches connected to the Turbo switch and / or remote jack. With Turbo in position 1, Q23 is bypassed and we only get one gain stage here. If Turbo is in position 2, Q14 is off and we get the extra gain from Q23.

Q16, Q19 are a JFET differential pair, connected to Q17, Q18 follower. These four transistors comprise an operational amplifier, yes, just like a chip op-amp. Not as good in terms of specs, maybe, but sounds very good when driven. You'll see the same type of topology in the OD-3, BD-2, etc.

This "op-amp" is set up as non-inverting, with a couple of diodes in the loop for soft-clipping. Q20 is a switch that shorts out the 1M resistor R56 that "bounds" the diodes. When Turbo is in position 1, the 1M is removed from the circuit so the gain is determined by just the Dist pot and the 1K resistor R54. If Turbo is in position 2 then the 1M is added in series with the diodes and cap, and this lessens the effect of the soft-clipping diodes.

The output signal then hits the two hard-clipping diodes D12 and D11, and then goes through another gain stage comprised of Q13 (gain) and Q12 (buffer.) The tone control is at the input of Q13 so it's acting more as recovery gain than adding any more crunch. Q10 switches C21 in and out of the circuit, to roll off some treble when Turbo is in position 1.

Then we hit the Level control, output bypass switch Q4, and out to Q11 as output buffer.

For reference, Q8 and Q9 control the JFET switches in Turbo mode. Q14, Q20, Q10 all turn on when Turbo is in position 1, and Q15 is on when in position 2. Q1 and Q2 are the bypass flip-flop, and control Q3 (bypass) and Q4, Q21 (engage.)"

Looking at your schematic, it looks like omitting C6 and R16 might get you Turbo mode. I have a version of the DS-2 I've been playing around with as well. I have the switching aspect down, but right now the circuit has no balls to it, so I need to tweak and go through it one more time to try and get the gain and drive coming alive in it.

 

[p_wats]

So I've done a few PedalPCBs, however they take 40+ days to get to my country, so I delved a bit into veroboard. One thing I didn't expect was that the two main sites to browse layouts were both blogspot sites spanning decades (and thank the lord for them).

However, I battled to actually browse these blogs. I'm sure you understand what I mean. Any way, I build a search engine that indexes and filters 2,600+ layouts. Have a look and let me know what you think.

Not the build report you're looking for but veroboard users out there might appreciate this.

Link: VeroboardMD

This is a great idea! Those old Blogger sites aren't always easy to navigate. Thanks for sharing

 

[Feral Feline]

I am more familiar with Tagboard than DBL, but I've never had any trouble navigating either site.
Tagboard has quick-links to types of effects and to brands, as does DBL.

Nonetheless I thought I'd try the vero-browser.

Search term chosen randomly that came to mind was "Ezekiel". The browser-search progress bar got maybe 1/3 the way and then seemed stuck there — just as I was about to take a screenshot of the frozen progress bar, it timed out and I got a "Failed to Open Page" message.

I opened windows for both Tagboard and DBL, entered the search term and both immediately came up with the DAM Ezekiel 25-17 circuit.

So I tried the vero-browser a second time, again, it stalled and failed to open a page.



I used a different search term for my third try, "Muff".
Same result as first two attempts.


I'm on a one-year old Mac laptop running Safari for the browser.

I battled to actually browse these blogs. I'm sure you understand what I mean.

I'm sorry, but I honestly don't understand. As mentioned, I have no problem searching through the blogs via the search bar, the chronological-order links, the links for effect types or the links via brands. I am curious what hurdles you encountered with these blogs?


Regardless of any issues or not while browsing the blogs, I think veroboardmd is a great idea. To be able to search both sites simultaneously is a boon. I hope my post is taken as constructive feedback that will ultimately help improve veroboardmd.

 

[kylewetton]

I am more familiar with Tagboard than DBL, but I've never had any trouble navigating either site.
Tagboard has quick-links to types of effects and to brands, as does DBL.

Nonetheless I thought I'd try the vero-browser.

Search term chosen randomly that came to mind was "Ezekiel". The browser-search progress bar got maybe 1/3 the way and then seemed stuck there — just as I was about to take a screenshot of the frozen progress bar, it timed out and I got a "Failed to Open Page" message.

I opened windows for both Tagboard and DBL, entered the search term and both immediately came up with the DAM Ezekiel 25-17 circuit.

So I tried the vero-browser a second time, again, it stalled and failed to open a page.

View attachment 50782

I used a different search term for my third try, "Muff".
Same result as first two attempts.


I'm on a one-year old Mac laptop running Safari for the browser.



I'm sorry, but I honestly don't understand. As mentioned, I have no problem searching through the blogs via the search bar, the chronological-order links, the links for effect types or the links via brands. I am curious what hurdles you encountered with these blogs?


Regardless of any issues or not while browsing the blogs, I think veroboardmd is a great idea. To be able to search both sites simultaneously is a boon. I hope my post is taken as constructive feedback that will ultimately help improve veroboardmd.

That’s fair, I’ll address what you’ve encountered below but feedback on these kinds of things is the way they improve so firstly: thank you! I hope you take the time to read my response.

Currently the site loads all entries at once on first paint. It doesn’t leverage a database (working on it now) so what you’re encountering is a low memory issue. I haven’t encountered this on my of my devices (mind trying on your phone?). Is there anything unique about the way you use Safari? How many tabs do you have open?

In terms of searching, I’m not sure if you’re joking here but here’s 4 screenshots I took right now trying to confirm I’m not crazy. This is me trying to even find how to search. Have you heard of Lulu Lemon by the way? They’re having a sale






Any way, there’s three. I think you get the point. This is not the experience anyone should be subjected to.

So we’re left with Google, which goes okay, no real drawbacks here. But I saw Pinterest and a veroboard vendor WAY before firtboxlayouts came up.

Perhaps it’s why I released this site as only indexing tagboardeffects because I didn’t even know dirtboxlayouts existed.


What about browsing then? I myself don’t have a rich history of pedals. Not coming from a country that offers a wide selection of them in the decades I grew up playing, my knowledge is years behind my interest.

This leads me to not knowing what I want until I see it, I want all options laid out before to Spark ideas and lead my way.

Currently I browse by clicking on year > month > pedal, with 1 second api calls between each click to drill down into names. I see there’s 303 pedals posted in 2013 but should I care about year and month to browse? That browsing experience is (and I’m sorry to say it) … horseshit,

So there’s tags right? One thing veroboardMD does show is how vague and mismanaged the tags are. I can guarantee I’ve unearthed hundreds of pedals you’d never have found by browsing directly on blogspot and you can quote me directly on that to the manager of blogspot. Speaking of browsing on Blogspot, have you heard of Lulu Lemon? They’re having a sale right now.

Or perhaps some music lessons (spot the pedal title here)




Any way, final point: Veroboard is an ad free experience.

What you’re subjected to on these sites is mild abuse ant best and psychological torture otherwise. in 2023 we can do better. Look at the care taken in this forum we’re on right now in comparison.

I’ll fix up the problems you’re having with a database and I’m sorry it didn’t load for you, I wasn’t able to test it via a multitude of devices and could only green light it on my own. I can almost guarantee for now that it should work on another device. Thanks for letting me know.

If it’s not something you feel like you need, you don’t have to use it. Maybe I’ll will come in handy one day otherwise.

For what it’s worth, testing on my phone

Page load: 2 seconds
Search: 0.34 seconds
Back to all posts: 1.54 seconds

The first and last are what I’m trying to fix urgently

 

[Feral Feline]

That’s fair, I’ll address what you’ve encountered below but feedback on these kinds of things is the way they improve so firstly: thank you! I hope you take the time to read my response.

Currently the site loads all entries at once on first paint. It doesn’t leverage a database (working on it now) so what you’re encountering is a low memory issue. I haven’t encountered this on my of my devices (mind trying on your phone?). Is there anything unique about the way you use Safari? How many tabs do you have open?

In terms of searching, I’m not sure if you’re joking here but here’s 4 screenshots I took right now trying to confirm I’m not crazy. This is me trying to even find how to search. Have you heard of Lulu Lemon by the way? They’re having a sale

View attachment 50792
View attachment 50793

View attachment 50794

Any way, there’s three. I think you get the point. This is not the experience anyone should be subjected to.

So we’re left with Google, which goes okay, no real drawbacks here. But I saw Pinterest and a veroboard vendor WAY before firtboxlayouts came up.

Perhaps it’s why I released this site as only indexing tagboardeffects because I didn’t even know dirtboxlayouts existed.


What about browsing then? I myself don’t have a rich history of pedals. Not coming from a country that offers a wide selection of them in the decades I grew up playing, my knowledge is years behind my interest.

This leads me to not knowing what I want until I see it, I want all options laid out before to Spark ideas and lead my way.

Currently I browse by clicking on year > month > pedal, with 1 second api calls between each click to drill down into names. I see there’s 303 pedals posted in 2013 but should I care about year and month to browse? That browsing experience is (and I’m sorry to say it) … horseshit,

So there’s tags right? One thing veroboardMD does show is how vague and mismanaged the tags are. I can guarantee I’ve unearthed hundreds of pedals you’d never have found by browsing directly on blogspot and you can quote me directly on that to the manager of blogspot. Speaking of browsing on Blogspot, have you heard of Lulu Lemon? They’re having a sale right now.

Or perhaps some music lessons (spot the pedal title here)


View attachment 50796

Any way, final point: Veroboard is an ad free experience.

What you’re subjected to on these sites is mild abuse ant best and psychological torture otherwise. in 2023 we can do better. Look at the care taken in this forum we’re on right now in comparison.

I’ll fix up the problems you’re having with a database and I’m sorry it didn’t load for you, I wasn’t able to test it via a multitude of devices and could only green light it on my own. I can almost guarantee for now that it should work on another device. Thanks for letting me know.

If it’s not something you feel like you need, you don’t have to use it. Maybe I’ll will come in handy one day otherwise.

For what it’s worth, testing on my phone

Page load: 2 seconds
Search: 0.34 seconds
Back to all posts: 1.54 seconds

The first and last are what I’m trying to fix urgently

I see!

I get it!

I wasn't joking at all; but I see that searching the vero sites with a phone is a joke.

Obviously you browse the 2 vero sites mostly using your phone, whereas I browse them using my computer.

I tried the veroboardMD on my phone as you suggested and BAM! Worked as good as a shot of the ol' spice weasel, pulled up the vero Easykill from both sites right away — most excellent!

As to the way I abuse Safari is I'll have dozens of windows open with dozens of tabs within each window, some windows will have pedal-related stuff, other windows will have car-related stuff and yet other windows other esoteric info — basically I'm comparing a lot of info and multi-tasking and leave windows/tabs open to come back to them at a later time when my brain finally comes full circle to that topic or I find the missing piece to the online puzzle I'm trying to solve.

SO, I shall try VeroboardMD again on my computer when I've not got a fecal-tonne of windows and tabs open. I don't always have so many windows/tabs open, I do purge from time to time — usually after finishing a deep dive into a topic, definitely when Safari becomes unstable (which is... right about now, funk-soul brother), and I'm almost done researching some welding topic.

You mentioned there are lots of circuits that fall through the cracks of each site's indexing, yes big HELL YES. For example, some circuits should be cross-referenced in two different indexes, but aren't. Please don't disparage browsing the dated indexing, though, it has its uses — at least for me, like re-finding something I didn't bookmark but remember it was from Feb 2018.




Many thanks for your response to my query.

This I know moving forward:

I will be using VeroboardMD.
I would so rock those pink cycling-shorts on my rides as a big middle-finger to the biking fashion-police.


Oh, and having any form of ad-free service content — bless you my brother, godot-speed!

Many many thanks.

 

[Silver Blues]

I was just about to ask WTF is going on with those shorts.

 

[kylewetton]

I was just about to ask WTF is going on with those shorts.

Finely tuned target marketing

 

[kylewetton]

I am more familiar with Tagboard than DBL, but I've never had any trouble navigating either site.
Tagboard has quick-links to types of effects and to brands, as does DBL.

Nonetheless I thought I'd try the vero-browser.

Search term chosen randomly that came to mind was "Ezekiel". The browser-search progress bar got maybe 1/3 the way and then seemed stuck there — just as I was about to take a screenshot of the frozen progress bar, it timed out and I got a "Failed to Open Page" message.

I opened windows for both Tagboard and DBL, entered the search term and both immediately came up with the DAM Ezekiel 25-17 circuit.

So I tried the vero-browser a second time, again, it stalled and failed to open a page.

View attachment 50782

I used a different search term for my third try, "Muff".
Same result as first two attempts.


I'm on a one-year old Mac laptop running Safari for the browser.



I'm sorry, but I honestly don't understand. As mentioned, I have no problem searching through the blogs via the search bar, the chronological-order links, the links for effect types or the links via brands. I am curious what hurdles you encountered with these blogs?


Regardless of any issues or not while browsing the blogs, I think veroboardmd is a great idea. To be able to search both sites simultaneously is a boon. I hope my post is taken as constructive feedback that will ultimately help improve veroboardmd.

Just wanted to say I've added some DOM level lazy loading and the site should run much faster for you.